Shintaro Ishihara

""Literature of any kind does not lead children to commit crime or cause juvenile delinquency,”"

—Ishihara, defending his violent novels, while banning explicit anime and video games

Shintaro Ishihara (September 30th, 1932 - ) is a Japanese far-right politician and author who served in as the governor of Tokyo prefecture from 1999-2012. Ishihara also served on the Japanese Parliament from 1972-1995 and was elected to the same position in 2012 as the frontrunner of his own new right wing party, the Sunrise Party.

Ishihara has a long history of making controversial statements and actions, beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, where he wrote a number of controversial novels which featured rape, murder, and sexual slavery as major themes. Ironically, during his term as Tokyo governor, he became know in Japan, and to a lesser extent around the world, for his hatred of the otaku community, who he described as "abnormal", "perverts", and having "corrupt DNA". Related to his hostility towards the otaku community, he passed a law that censored violent and sexual content in anime and video game, in spite of having written novels with similar content in the past.

Other controversies associated with Ishihara include accusations of siphoning money to and politically supporting Aum Shinrikyo during the 1990s, which ultimately forced him to resign from Parliament in 1995, as well as describing homosexuals as "pitiful" and "lacking something genetically". Ishihara has also shown xenophobic attitudes towards foreigners, suggested the unemployed be drafted into the Japanese Self-Defense Force, and stated that Japan should develop nuclear weapons and an secret intelligence service similar to the Isreali Mossad. Ishihara also gained controversy for stating that the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami was divine punishment for a "corrupt" Japan.